The Doctor and the Trash Compactor
by 1alphanumeric1
Summary: The 9th Doctor and Rose travel to the near future where they find an abandoned earth devoid of humanity. Now they must solve the mystery of the missing populace. Takes place between "The Unquiet Dead" and "Aliens of London."
1. Chapter 1

**The Doctor and the Trash Compactor.**

The grinding noise of a TARDIS materializing wafted through the warm empty air. She fully materialized with a wheezing thump.

A tall man wearing a leather duster and a young blonde girl stepped out.

"Look Rose, I told you that humanity has abandoned the earth and reclaimed her many, many times." The Doctor said to the young woman at his side. "See? Here we are in the mid-22nd century. You lot didn't listen to the environmentalists first time round and left your home planet when she got all used up. But see? They all came back and everything is back to normal."

"But Doctor, there's no one here." Rose said as she indicated the empty crumbling cityscape before them.

The doctor looked up quickly and looked around. He consulted his wristwatch, tapping it and holding it up to his ear. "Well we're not early." He stepped forward taking in the scenery in every detail.

"I don't understand, This place should be bustling with people. Where are they?" Turning to Rose, The Doctor said ominously. "Rose, somethings wrong here. Come on, we have to get back to the TARDIS"

The Doctor and Rose turned and quickly re-entered the TARDIS. The ship faded away amidst the noise of fading grinding.

But there was no one around to watch it go.

* * *

><p>The TARDIS rematerialized again. This time several light years away aboard a derelict vessel.<p>

Stepping out again, The Doctor and Rose looked around the pitch black cavernous deck. The TARDIS providing the only illumination. The deck was strewn with trash, and gigantic machinery sat dead amidst the detritus.

"Doctor, Where are we?" Rose asked as she stepped carefully around the junk laying about the deck.

"And why is it so hard to breathe?" She asked as she started to gasp.

"Hold on a sec." The Doctor said as he walked carefully over to a control console in a wall. Pulling out his sonic screwdriver, he scanned the dead console. Somewhere deep, a large thunk reverberated throughout the disabled vessel. A low red light flickered to life and dimly lit the cavernous hold.

"There. I managed to get the emergency sub systems back online. But they won't hold for long." Turning to Rose the Doctor held out his hand. She quickly walked over and put her hand in his.

"Come on. We have to get to the bridge before the power runs out." They both quickly ran over to a door. They stuttered open to reveal a lift inside.

"Come on Rose. We haven't much time." They both got into the lift. The Doctor Sonic'd the control panel. It fluttered in and out of life. But read "Bridge" The doors slowly ground closed.

They were on their way.

The doors ground open. Rose and the Doctor stepped out.

"Blimey!" Rose said as she quickly stepped out. "I am not going back in that thing! I didn't think we were going to make there for a second."

"We almost didn't." the Doctor replied. "The last of the lift power went to open the doors. We're going to have to walk back down."

"Well good thing I'm wearing my trainers then." Rose said as she moved around the bridge.

All of a sudden, what looked like a ships wheel suddenly spun around.

"Alert! Intruders Detected!" One of the handles popped open revealing a deadly looking electric tazer.

"Rose! Get behind me!" The Doctor shouted as he put himself between Rose and the homicidal wheel.

The Doctor raised his sonic screwdriver, but before he could do anything, the light inside the wheel died and it stopped moving. It sat there dead.

"I guess this place almost being out of power could be considered a good thing then." Rose said as she swallowed the lump in her throat.

"I guess you could say that." The Doctor said as he waved his sonic around the deserted bridge.

"So why did we come up here anyways Doctor?" Rose asked ash she followed him around the bridge.

"I have to see why this ship didn't return to earth. It should have returned over 200 years ago. Why didn't it?"

The Doctor and Rose came across a figure slumped over, sitting in a chair. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a desiccated skeleton, covered in a now oversized jumper.

"Just as I thought. The captain himself." The Doctor scanned the console the skeleton lay on.

"Aha!" The Doctor said. "The ships logs. They're badly corrupted, but I hope I can recover some of them."

A bridge display came up. A badly scrambled image of what appeared to be a large rotund man flicked on the screen.

"Nope. That ones too badly damaged. Let me try another." The Doctor pulled open a console cover and inserted his sonic screwdriver. The panel sparked but the screen came back to life once again.

Once again the large rotund man appeared. This time he spoke.

"Captains log: August 19, 2951. Captain Randall Ambrose reporting. I've had to start rationing as the Regenerative Food Buffets have started to break down. I've also had to start cannibalizing ships parts as we ran out of replacements last week. Engine core temperature is starting to fluctuate. I've sent out a request for assistance from any nearby sister passenger ships. Nothing else to report." The screen went black.

"Okay then, lets see, the next 30 days of logs are corrupted. But, ah, here we go." The Doctor said as he continued to fiddle with the sonic screwdriver.

The screen came to life again. This time Captain Randall seemed a bit more disheveled.

"Captains log: September 21, 2951. Captain Randall Ambrose reporting. I've had to order the ships automated stewards to start locking the passengers in their cabins, as there have been isolated incidents of food rioting. I've also had to increase food and water rationing as we are now down to one single Regenerative Food Buffet machine working. And it is doing so intermittently. Human remains are starting to pile up faster than the server droids can reconstitute them. So I've ordered them to start dumping the bodies down the trash chutes. I have now sent out an urgent request for assistance from any sister ships in the area. I am confident we will be hearing from them soon. Nothing else to report."

"Doctor," Rose quietly asked. "Do you mean to tell me that the passengers and crew were..."

"eating people? Yes Rose. How else did you think the buffet 'regenerated' itself?" The Doctor said as he fiddled with his screwdriver.

"My god. That's sick." Rose said as she covered her mouth in horror

"No. I told you. That's recycling. Now be quiet, here's the next playable log."

Captain Ambrose appeared again. This time looking much thinner and gaunter. He wasn't even looking at the screen. Long moments dragged on before he said anything. Then he quietly spoke up.

"We... we had an airlock on the primary medical deck blow today." his face suddenly scrunched up into a ball of emotional agony.

"We lost the nursery. All the children are dead."

"WHERE ARE THEY? WHY DON'T THEY ANSWER US? WE NEED HELP!" The captain suddenly screamed into the camera.

The screen went black yet again.

"Doctor. Where are the other ships? Why didn't they come to this ships aid?" Rose quietly asked as she tried to keep the horror and sadness out of her voice.

"Because Rose, except for a few ships that managed to make planetfall on habitable worlds. This was the only ship left in existence. This is the BnL AXIOM. She was the crown jewel of the Starliner series, executive class. This was the ship that all the 'important' people boarded when they finally left earth for the final time. This ship had the best of everything. Nothing was spared when she was built. That's the only reason she lasted this long."

"So you mean that..."

"There are eleven other ships just like this one. Floating in the void. Silent empty tombs carrying the remnants of humanity."

"That's awful." Rose said quietly. Unable to keep the horror out of her voice.

"That's humanity. You stupid apes. You skimp on even the important things. Even the possible salvation of your race was left to the lowest bidder." The Doctor said coldly. "Anyways, here's the last log."

This time the ships wheel came up on screen. It's cold mechanical voice filling the bridge.

"CAPTAIN RANDALL AMBROSE HAS DIED AT 2230 HOURS. DECEMBER 24TH 2951. PASSENGER LEVELS ARE AT 5% CAPACITY. ALL FOOD AND WATER RECLAMATION SYSTEMS ARE DOWN. MAIN ENGINE IS DOWN. ATMOSPHERIC SYSTEMS ARE DOWN. NON BREATHABLE ATMOSPHERIC LEVELS WILL REACH TOXIC LEVELS WITHIN THE HOUR.

TO PREVENT FURTHER SUFFERING OF PASSENGERS AND CREW I WILL ACTIVATE PLAN ZERO ZERO ZERO DESTRUCT ZERO.

AUTOPILOT. AXIOM. OUT.

"What was plan 0-0-0-destruct-0?" Rose asked the Doctor.

"I assume it was the self destruct for the ship. It was probably to overload the ships engines and blow the axiom to stardust. But with the main engine down, the order wasn't able to be carried out. So everyone left alive just asphyxiated to death." The Doctor replied as he scanned through the rest of the bridge logs.

"Dammit. There's nothing here about why this ship didn't return home when she was supposed too. What happened? Why didn't she go back home like she was supposed to?

"Doctor..."

"Not now Rose, I'm busy."

"But Doctor,"

"what is it Rose?"

"Whats that flashing light on the console?" She asked as she pointed to a red light blinking on the control panel

"It's probably just the ships automated distress beacon. Now be quiet. I'm thinking!" The Doctor answered crossly.

"But Doctor." Rose pressed firmly.

"WHAT!"

"Since when does an automated distress beacon have a countdown!" She said as she pointed out to a small display counting down next to the flashing light.

"What!" The Doctor said as he spun around and looked at the countdown.

The Doctor and Rose both looked at each other.

"RUN!"


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

"_Buy n Large! Your superstore! All you need and so much more! Good morning New San Angeles! The time is 7 o'clock on the dot. The weather for today will be sunny, with temperatures reaching a respectable 120 degrees!The Smog report for today says levels will reach around 60% in the late afternoon, so be sure to pack your resp-"_

David Marcus hit the alarm button and groggily got out of bed. He tiredly rubbed his face, and sat on the edge of his bed.

He was not looking forward to today, there was supposed to be some new hotshot consultant coming in to oversee the new project he had just been put in charge of.

David was somehow supposed to come up with a plan to combat the last few hundred years of ecological abuse of the planet within the next year.

Well, it's always nice to know your superiors believe in your capabilities, he supposed.

He remembered the meeting in his bosses office with the actual President of Buy-n-Large on holovid.

"David," His boss Chuck Biggens began "You've seen the latest toxicity figures, and they're not good. Projections show that if we can't turn the current trend around within the next 25 to 30 years the earth will become uninhabitable to human life. 'Operation: Clean Up' has to come on line within the next year if we're gonna make any substantial changes to the environment." His boss said as he sat behind his large opulent desk.

"_Sure"_ David thought, _"Now we're gonna do something about it when we ALL know it's about 50 years too late."_

But obviously he was smart enough to not say it out loud.

"Look David, may I call you David?" The holovid of the President of Buy-n-Large said, waxing his polished faux smile. "I've been told that your the 'go-to-guy' who can make things happen. That's why I'm personally putting you in charge of this project. I don't think I have to tell you the amount of prestige and accolades that will be coming your way when we get on top of this silly little problem." His smile never wavered.

"Yes Mr. President." David said "I'm aware of how big this project is, which is why you have to triple if not out right quadruple my current budget."

The look of panic and outrage that warred briefly on his bosses face for a moment almost made him laugh.

"Now see here!" Chuck spluttered angrily,

"Look," David said ploughing through his bosses outrage "We both know this project is a long shot, but the current budget I have, will barely pay for the furniture let alone the staff and equipment I'm going to need,"

"David, your know as well as I do that we're coming up on our quarterly financial report." The President said still smiling that infuriating smile. "I'll admit that your budget may be small, but it should be enough to get the project up and running. We can revisit this minor issue at a later date."

"With all due respect sir, I would prefer to visit it now." David said unflinching.

The Presidents eyes narrowed, the false humour completely gone from them now. "Well then, Mr. Marcus, how much would you like for an operating budget?"

We will need to start at least half a billion, I'll also need unrestricted access to any B-n-L division, it's equipment and staff."

"That's outrageous!" His boss goggled, his face flushing a deep crimson.

Poor man almost looked like he was about to have a coronary.

David ignored him. "Mr. President, that's the bare minimum I need. I will probably actually need at least double that to actually make this work, but I'm used to being behind the 8-ball. You give me this and I can guarantee that you will have a working solution inside of year."

The president of B-n-L looked at David for a long moment. Neither of them speaking, and neither of them backing down.

Suddenly, the Presidents faux smile was back on his face. "Tell you what David. I'll give you the full unrestricted access to all B-n-L divisions AND any staff you want, I mean we all want the same thing right?"

"And I'll start your budget at 300 million instead of 100. But we WILL have to revisit the subject AFTER the quarterly financial reports are published, all right?"

Recognizing that this was the best offer he was likely to get, David smiled back at the President. "Agreed Mr. President. And don't worry, I am your 'go-to-guy' after all."

"Excellent! Glad to see such a team player!" The President enthused. "By the way I just had a fascinating meeting with a new consultant. A Doctor..." The president looked closely at a sheet of paper he was holding. Looking to someone out of range of the camera "Emily, can you read this fellows hand writing? I can't make heads or tails out of his signature."

A woman, presumably the Presidents secretary, came into view "Uh, no sir. I can't read it either."

"Oh well, Just call him by his honorary title I'm sure he won't mind being referred to as just 'Doctor'. And his assistant, a lovely young thing. Reminds me of my grand daughter. A Miss Rose Tyler."

"Very well Mr. President. I'll be sure to roll out the red carpet for them." David replied while trying to think of a way to keep them out of his hair and business.

"Good, good, son. Now if you'll excuse us I have some other business to discuss with your boss and I'm sure you have plenty of work ahead of you so we won't keep you."

"Of course. Mr Biggens, Mr. President." With that David got up and left his bosses office.

After closing the door, David stood for a moment and eaves dropped.

"Now Chuck, I can call you Chuck? We all know this project is a long shot, but we needed something to calm down our customers. I'm sure David is a fine hard working man, but we both know the chances of him succeeding are pretty small."

"So I want you to look into something for me."

"Of course Mr. President, I'm at your disposal." David could practically hear the obsequiousness drip out of his bosses mouth.

"Excellent, now what do you think about space travel?"

"A-hem!" David turned and looked at the prim and proper Ms. Quincy, His bosses secretary who was currently shooting daggers at him with her eyes. "Are you done MISTER Marcus?"

David smiled at her and winked. "Yes I am Miss Quincy."

He left his bosses office. He had alot of work ahead of him.

He hadn't gone to bed till 4 AM after harassing, harrying and bullying anyone who had gotten in his way, and was now feeling like a truck had run over him.

But he had to be in the office at 8AM sharp to brief the first few members of his new team.

Oh yeah, and that 'consultant'.

When David got into the cramped office that was going to be his teams new headquarters, everyone he has initially asked to come were there.

Anita Anderson, AI specialist, Micheal Reams metallurgy specialist, Anderson Vorik, head of the Advanced Energy Storage Division.

And standing in a corner with his arms folded, wearing a black leather duster with a close shaven head, he presumed was the mysterious 'Doctor'.

He assumed the girl standing next to him was his assistant, Rose Tyler.

"Good morning people. My name is David Marcus, I'm sure you know each other, even if only by reputation." He said as he strode into the middle of the room.

"Now, as to the reason for which you were all dragged out of your own projects and brought here at this ungodly hour, well it's quite simple."

"We're going to save the world."

There were a few snorts at that.

Vorik was the first to speak up.

"And just how are we supposed to do that?" He barely hid the sneer.

"I'm glad you asked Mr. Vorik. As you all may have heard through the grape-vine the recent summit for climatological change has put out an even darker than predicted forecast for the planets survival."

"well I've seen the reports and let me tell you, it's much, much worse than you could possibly think."

David walked over to his desk and leaned against the front. "Simply put, unless we take radical action our planet will not be able to sustain complex life within 30 years at the outside, twenty at the soonest."

Anita, blanched. "Surely they must be mistaken...?"

"I'm afraid they're not." A voice with a foreign accent spoke up. "In fact I would estimate that it's closer to 10 to 15 years before this planet can no longer sustain any complex life anymore. And I would bet on ten myself."

Everyone turned to the man standing at the back of the room.

Davids eyes narrowed. "And you are?"

The leather jacketed man pushed up off against the wall. "I'm the Doctor, and this is Rose Tyler. I'm the new consultant hired directly by your President. And I'm here to help."

"Really?" David said as he stood up and looked at the man directly "Doctor...?"

"Just the Doctor will do."

"Well then 'Doctor', just what sort of consultation can you offer us?"

"Well, first off, I'd get rid of Vorik. He's been riding for years on the coat tails of one of his scientists, a Parminder Singh. Singh's the one behind the latest development of the B-n-L plasma conduit. Singh's the one doing the work, Voriks the one taking the credit."

"Who do you think you are!" Vorik got up out of his chair and practically yelled at the man. "Do you know who I AM!"

The Doctor didn't even flinch. "Yes I know exactly who you are, your a corporate toady who managed to stumble into a good thing and is milking it for all it's worth. Now do you know who I am?" The Doctor asked calmly.

"I'm the man who, with one phone call can have you fired, and arrested for corporate malfeasance. Remember the President hired me directly. And it wasn't because of who I know."

"Don't think your scaring me, you little piss-ant! I have friends too you know."

David watched closely as the Doctor calmly got up and walked directly over to where Vorik stood with his hands clenched tightly in anger.

"Do you know what else I have?" The Doctor said conversationally.

David watched as Vorik tried to remain imposing looking, but next to the doctors calm relaxed stance he seemed to only look ridiculous.

"What could you have that would possibly interest me?" Vorik said.

"I have the e-mails from June 16th of this year."

Vorik visibly shrunk, "You can't, I wiped-" he suddenly seemed to realize what he was about to say.

The Doctor offered up a silly wide grin all of a sudden. "You'd be surprised how good I am with computers."

The Doctor suddenly turned away from Vorik and faced David. "As a consultant, my first consult would be to get rid of this guy from your team and actually bring in someone who knows what they're doing."

David fought down a smile from his lips. "Such as this Singh fellow?"

"I suppose he'd do in a pinch." The Doctor replied.

"I'll take it under consideration, anything else?"

Yes actually, while Anita here is very good at what she does, she's not as good as Andrew Shaw."

"That man's a terrorist!" Anita exclaimed.

"Yes he is, that doesn't change the fact that he's still the leading figure in AI." The doctor replied. "Sure he may be in jail right now, but we both know you've based all of your most recent work off of his files that Corporate Security have declassified and allowed into the public domain."

"And just how do you propose I get Andrew out of jail?" David asked. He really was starting to like this fellow.

"I dunno, you seem the clever type. I'm sure you'll figure it out." The Doctor said, as he sat himself down in Voriks unoccupied chair.

"I appreciate the vote of confidence." David said,allowing the corner of his mouth to slightly curl up before continuing on.

"Anyways, before we were so rudely interrupted, I believe that I was saying that together we are going to come up with a plan that will save the earth. I've never failed in any assignment ladies and gentlemen, and I'm not going to fail in this one!"

David gave everyone gathered a even stare. "Before you are some rough outlines that I have made up for what I think needs to be done. Study up on them. Tomorrow we'll reconvene and go over a more detailed plan."

"All right? Any questions? No? Good. Then we'll meet back here at the same time tomorrow. Dismissed."

"Mr. Vorik, a moment of your time if you would. And Doctor if you would stay behind for a moment also."

everyone else left and David closed the door behind them.

The door wasn't even fully closed before Vorik started.

"See here Marcus if you think I'm going to stand for this kind of treatment..."

David got in close and quietly spoke. "I can assure you Mr. Vorik that I abjectly apologize about THAT man's behaviour towards you. I can assure that he was dumped on me by the President and I have no control over him."

Putting a friendly arm around Voriks shoulders, David continued on. "In fact I just wanted to say that I think that it's more important that you head back to running your division. Your too important to be wasted on this mad impossible plan, just let me have Singh in return and we can forget this whole silly debacle ever happened." David finished and smiled.

Vorik seemed slightly mollified at this. "Well I'm glad that you can be reasonable about this. But as for Singh I'm afraid that he's too busy at the moment working on some very important projects. I can think of a half dozen other people who could just as easily-"

"Vorik, or could I call you Anderson? We're being such good friends and all." David said as he leaned in close, tightening his grip on Voriks shoulders. "I suppose I should mention that I also have copies of those emails from June."

Voriks eyes bugged.

"So here's the deal. You go back and run your little empire, and you have Singh report to me first thing in the morning. Okay? Good. I thought you'd see it my way."

And with that he ushered Vorik out of his office.

Closing the door behind Vorik, David turned to the Doctor. "Now 'Doctor' I have to admit that I like you. But." and leaned in very close.

"Undermine me again in front of my team again and I WILL bury you. Do you understand me?"

"Completely."

"Good. Now run along my good man, I have alot of work to do, including figuring out how to get Andrew Shaw out of jail."

Both men smiled at each other.

"Blimey" Rose said, rolling her eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

"So have we learned anything important Doctor?" Rose asked the Doctor as they left the meeting with David Marcus.

"I'm not too sure, Rose. We have to get back to the TARDIS. I have a bad feeling about what's going on, but I need to see what the TARDIS' Data Banks have to say about what was supposed to happen with this time period." The Doctor replied.

They reached the TARDIS, where she was parked in a sub basement of the building they were in. The Doctor took out his TARDIS key and unlocked the door and ushered Rose inside. He strode up to the central column, and pulling the main display around he began to type in his query about this time zone.

The information appeared on the monitor and the Doctor read it out loud.

"Well according to this, everything apparently rested on an Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth Class Bot. Somehow it managed to board an automated survey vessel, and return the Axiom back to earth. From there they were able to recall the rest of Starliner fleet."

"So what went wrong?" asked Rose as she leaned over the Doctor's shoulder.

"I don't know, I have a suspicion, but we're going to have to pop forward in time a bit to when this robot was supposed board that Survey vessel and see what went wrong from there."

The Doctor ran around the central console flipping switches and dials. The central rotor started to move.

They were off.

* * *

><p>The TARDIS materialized in the ruins of San Angeles. Rose and the Doctor stepped out. The Doctor held a temporal scanner in his hand.<p>

"Okay Rose, this should take us to where this Robot was supposed to meet up with the survey ship.

Rose followed the Doctor as they walked across the empty trash strewn vista. She couldn't help but feel sad and disappointed towards her fellow man for allowing this to happen.

"Doctor," Rose asked as she followed the Doctor who was paying attention to his scanner. "Is there anything you can do to maybe change this outcome? So that maybe this doesn't happen to the Earth?"

The Doctor walked on, his eyes firmly fixed to the small device. "I'm sorry Rose but what happens here HAS to happen. At least it's supposed to. That's whats so strange, these events are supposed to be a fixed point in time. They have to happen. Which is why this is so strange, because if something messed with a fixed point in time, then time itself should have collapsed. But the simple fact that it hasn't is what's puzzling me."

"What's a fixed point in time?" Rose asked.

"Well it's supposed to be an immutable point in time. Like World War 2 or Pompeii. Those are moments that have to happen. Because they inform the rest of the future."

Looking around, Rose said "So there's nothing you can do to change this?"

Hearing the pain in Rose's voice, the Doctor stopped and turned around.

"I'm sorry Rose but this HAS to happen, if time was running correctly, when humanity reclaims the Earth, they would have learned some very painful lessons from this and would have taken better care of your world the next time around."

Looking around, the Doctor indicated the vista before them.

"Imagine a world where humanity finally lives in harmony with this world. Where greed takes a back seat to taking proper care of this world. It's because of this catastrophe that humanity grows up alot. Of course there's always room for improvement, but this is where it starts. At least it's supposed to."

They both began to hear a rumble coming from the sky. Looking up they saw a large gleaming white rocket slowly descend from they sky.

"Come on Rose, let's see where it lands." Grabbing her hand, the Doctor and Rose raced up a hill of trash. As they cleared the top. They laid down and watched the the rocket coming in for a landing.

As they watched a small egg shaped probe waited close to where the Rocket was going to land.

"Doctor what is that?" Rose asked as she peered over the crest.

"That must be the EVE unit, awaiting pick up." The Doctor replied.

"What's an EVE unit?" Rose asked.

"It stands for Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator. It's a probe designed to look for signs of the Earth being habitable again. And the best indicator is free growing vegetation. But that probe doesn't look like it's entered stand-by mode which means it hasn't found anything growing. But it was supposed to have!"

Sure enough the probe slowly waited for a ramp to extend down. It seemed to look forlornly around before boarding the rocket. As soon as the ramp retracted, the rocket took off back into the sky.

The Doctor consulted the Temporal scanner in his hand. "Come on Rose, lets see where the cleaner bot is.

They walked on for what seemed like miles, until they came to a collapsed overpass. The Doctor's scanner began beeping.

"Okay, we're getting close to him." The Doctor said as they followed the beeping scanner. They came across a dead and rusted robot. The Doctor bent down and wiped away years of built up dirt and detritus from the rear of the dead unit. It read:

MODEL:WALL-E-55679-6367-0  
>ISN:667-98663-65-3<br>NO. 07

"Well this is the unit, but it's obviously been dead for decades, if not centuries." The Doctor looked around, confusion on his face. "What happened here?" He asked no one in particular.

"Come on Rose lets get back to the TARDIS. I'm going to need her more powerful scanners."

They stumbled back the way they came and entered the TARDIS once more. The doctor swung the console monitor around and began typing in a query for the TARDIS to scan for any temporal anomalies.

It only took a moment before it beeped. The Doctor read the scanner, and his face darkened.

"I was afraid of this." He said as he began to flip dials and switches putting the TARDIS into motion yet once again.

"What is it Doctor? What's wrong?" Rose asked. She had never seen him like this.

"I'll show you." the Doctor said, his expression never changing.

The TARDIS rematerialized in the centre of San Angeles. Once again Rose and the Doctor strode out, but the Doctor's demeanour was completely changed. Rose said nothing as she followed him out. Somehow she knew that whatever was happening it was bad.

And considering some of the things she had been through with the doctor so far that was saying something.

They climbed up the side of what appeared to be a crater that was centered on a collapsed building.

As they crested the ridge, they both looked down into the floor of the crater.

Rose could barely look at what was sitting in the center of the crater. It throbbed with a disturbing black light. She felt nauseous just trying to look at it. Her mind couldn't make heads or tails of the shape of the thing, and after a moment she stopped trying altogether.

The Doctor just stared at it, the dark light reflecting off of his face giving him an almost demonic appearance.

"It's just as I thought. I'm responsible for this."


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

"But Doctor, how could all this be your fault?" Rose asked as she tried to shield her eyes from the painful black glare of the object in the center of the crater.

For long moments, the Doctor didn't reply. He just continued to stare down into the crater. Every sort of painful emotion seemed to run across his face, but it happened so quickly that Rose thought she could have just imagined it.

Finally he spoke up.

"Do you remember the war I told you about?" The Doctor asked Rose, never taking his eyes away from the object.

"You said that your people had been in a war and that they lost. What does that have to with that?" Rose replied, indicating the object.

"Well our enemy just in physical numbers vastly outnumbered us. And they were EVERYWHERE. Near the end, they started to just attack and exterminate any planet that had a sentient species on it. They were trying to draw out and thin our defenses which, while were technologically superior, were limited in the numbers we could deploy for defense."

An angry look crossed his face. "The council decided to let the Galaxy fend for itself, and keep our defenses focused on our homeworld."

"I was opposed to that, so I proposed a quick and dirty solution."

"A Time Bomb. All planets that hadn't been attacked yet, that we could reach, would be given a device that would surround their world with a temporal shell."

"Any enemy attack would be repelled by a Chaotic Temporal Shockwave. Time itself would warp and twist anything not inside the shield."

"But we soon discovered that a sufficiently heavy enough assault would cause the shield to collapse and everything would be destroyed. The planet and the assaulting force would both be wiped out."

"Our enemy didn't care, so they simply started hitting protected planets with overwhelming force. It was a brute force approach, but they had the numbers to spare, and didn't care about individual casualties."

"I suspect that's what happened here. That thing in the crater could be best referred to as a time splinter. It's acting like a Paradox Machine. It's keeping the fixed point from collapsing, allowing this alternate history to proceed." The Doctor concluded.

"But how could the Earth still be here then, if they hit Earths Shield that hard?" Rose asked.

"The Golden BB effect I suppose." The Doctor replied. "remember, time itself was warped and shattered by my device. Everything and anything could possibly occur or not occur. Just this one time a physical temporal splinter was formed and somehow kept the Earth from being destroyed."

"Just luck of the Irish I suppose." The Doctor finished.

"So, can you shut it down?" Rose asked.

"It's not that simple Rose. That splinter is the only thing that's keeping time from collapsing."

"No, what I'm going to have to do is go back in time and try to put history back on track. Every time history deviates from what should have happened I'm going to have to correct it."

"The hard part is going to be in doing the correction. Every time we try to fix history, The splinter is going to be trying keep that from happening. As far as it's concerned, this is the correct timeline, and will do everything to oppose us."

"And to top it all off, we're only going to get one chance to fix each problem. If we fail, that's it game over."

"But that's not the best part, no. The best part is that the splinter itself is starting to fail. And if it fails before we're done, BOOM! The end of time itself." The Doctor concluded darkly.

Rose swallowed a little at that. "So, no pressure then eh?"

"Exactly." Turning to Rose, he suddenly smiled. "Right! Let's get to it then!"


End file.
